*From:* XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
*Date:* July 20, 2016 at 7:56:47 AM EDT
*To:*
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
*Subject:* *FYI*
From:
James H. Davis III and Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad
Brothers of Greater Essex Jack & Jill,
As some of
you may have heard, Stephanie and I are running on the same
ticket for the South Orange-Maplewood Board of
Education election in
November 2016.
While Stephanie is running as an incumbent, this is my
first election. There are several reasons why I decided to
run, but one
reason can be encapsulated in a statement made
by our own Michael Minor,
“If you are not at the table, you are on the
menu.”
Our school district has long offered the
vision of a place where all
students
are fully challenged and effectively prepared to realize their
full potential. Indeed, the Board of Education
has made closing the
Achievement Gap a top priority every year for
the last two decades.
But we have to admit that -- while some
progress has been made -- it is
way too little and too slow. Especially for
children of color. Stephanie
and I believe that we can all agree that the
pace of change needs to
increase.
With the
commitment of our new Superintendent, Dr. John Ramos, and
leveraging the School Board's recently-adopted
"Access and Equity" policy,
we believe the opportunity exists to
accelerate the effort to turn vision
into reality.
However, making it happen depends upon
electing School Board members that
are committed to the vision and policies
proposed by Dr. Ramos while also
providing thoughtful oversight and leadership
to help operationalize the
vision.
We are not in this, however, purely to improve
outcomes for students of
color, important as that may be. We firmly
believe that making any progress
on that goal depends upon forging a stronger
school district that is
capable of serving all students well and that
is responsive to the needs of
every individual child.
In the weeks ahead, as part of our campaign,
Stephanie and I intend to
share more of our outlook and thoughts on
specific issues and challenges.
But make
no mistake. There are other candidates
running for the same open
School
Board seats who do not share our vision or the interests of our children. Running an effective and dynamic campaign
takes money and we are
determined
to get our message out, and our ground game established, sooner rather than
later. So we are asking that you please
donate to our campaign
as soon as
possible. Please dig deep to help us get
off on the right foot. We are asking for contributions of $300 per person or
whatever you can afford.
Make checks (no cash please!) payable to:
"Davis and Lawson-Muhammad for School
Board"
and deliver/mail to:
73 Crest Drive, South Orange, NJ 07079
(Stephanie's house
Please Note: NJ Election Law Enforcement
Commission ("NJELEC") rules
require that all donors provide the name and
address of their employers to
campaign committees. Please email us that
information or we will collect it
from you subsequently.
Thanks in advance for your support!
James and Stephanie
PS:
Note on contributions:
Contribution limits and reporting requirements
for state and local
election campaigns in New Jersey are governed
by the NJ Election Law
Enforcement Commission. For those interested,
here are the guidelines:
Contributions greater than $300 from any one
person are subject to
individual reporting on the NJ ELEC website.
Couples can give up to $600 before the
individual reporting requirement is
triggered, subject to certain restrictions.
Campaigns are required to keep records of all
donors, however small their
contributions, and be ready, upon demand, to
produce those records for
review and publication on the ELEC website.
In case any of you are feeling generous, the
maximum contribution to a
single candidate by one individual in a single
election cycle is $2600. The
limit for contributing to a campaign of two
people (like us) is therefore
$5200.
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